With little white leaves in the gra.s.ses, Spread wide for the smile of the sun, It waits till the daylight pa.s.ses, And closes them one by one.

I have asked why it closed at even, And I know what it wished to say: There are stars all night in the heaven, And I am the star of day.

1881.

"WHEN I AM DEAD"

When I am dead, my spirit Shall wander far and free, Through realms the dead inherit Of earth and sky and sea; Through morning dawn and gloaming, By midnight moons at will, By sh.o.r.es where the waves are foaming, By seas where the waves are still.

I, following late behind you, In wingless sleepless flight, Will wander till I find you, In sunshine or twilight; With silent kiss for greeting On lips and eyes and head, In that strange after-meeting Shall love be perfected.

We shall lie in summer breezes And pa.s.s where whirlwinds go, And the Northern blast that freezes Shall bear us with the snow.

We shall stand above the thunder, And watch the lightnings hurled At the misty mountains under, Of the dim forsaken world.

We shall find our footsteps' traces, And pa.s.sing hand in hand By old familiar places, We shall laugh, and understand.

1881.

AFTER HEINE

The leaves are falling, falling, The yellow treetops wave, Ah, all delight and beauty Is drawing to the grave.

About the wood's crest flicker The wan sun's laggard rays, They are the parting kisses Of fleeting summer days.

Meseems I should be shedding The heart's-tears from my eyes, The day will keep recalling The time of our good-byes:

I knew that you were dying And I must pa.s.s away, Oh I was the waning summer, And you were the wood's decay.

1881.

"THOSE DAYS ARE LONG DEPARTED"

Those days are long departed, Gone where the dead dreams are, Since we two children started To look for the morning star.

We asked our way of the swallow In his language that we knew, We were sad we could not follow So swift the blue bird flew.

We set our wherry drifting Between the poplar trees, And the banks of meadows shifting Were the sh.o.r.es of unknown seas.

We talked of the white snow prairies That lie by the Northern lights, And of woodlands where the fairies Are seen in the moonlit nights.

Till one long day was over And we grew too tired to roam, And through the corn and clover We slowly wandered home.

Ah child! with love and laughter We had journeyed out so far; We who went in the big years after To look for another star;

But I go unbefriended Through wind and rain and foam,-- One day was hardly ended When the angel took you home.

1881.

A STAR-DREAM

There was a night when you and I Looked up from where we lay, When we were children, and the sky Was not so far away.

We looked toward the deep dark blue Beyond our window bars, And into all our dreaming drew The spirit of the stars.

We did not see the world asleep-- We were already there!

We did not find the way so steep To climb that starry stair.

And faint at first and fitfully, Then sweet and shrill and near, We heard the eternal harmony That only angels hear;

And many a hue of many a gem We found for you to wear, And many a shining diadem To bind about your hair;

We saw beneath us faint and far The little cloudlets strewn, And I became a wandering star, And you became my moon.

Ah! have you found our starry skies?

Where are you all the years?

Oh, moon of many memories!

Oh, star of many tears!

1881.

AFTER HEINE

Beautiful fisherman's daughter, Steer in your bark to the land!

Come down to me over the water And talk to me hand in hand!

Lay here on my heart those tresses, For look, what have you to fear Who are bold with the sea's caresses Every day in the year?

My heart is at one with the deep In its storm, in its ebb and flow, And ah! There are pearls asleep In cavernous depths below.

1880.

AFTER HEINE

How the mirrored moonbeams quiver On the waters' fall and rise, Yet the moon serene as ever Wanders through the quiet skies.

Like the mirrored moonlight's fretting Are the dreams I have of you, For my heart will beat, forgetting You are ever calm and true.